Buckingham Palace must get a grip on Royal household spending, says Commons committee

Buckingham Palace is being told to get a grip on spending and increase its income by a Commons committee as it seeks to cut costs.

Expenditure by the Queen's household was scrutinised by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which cited the need to get a firmer grip on a backlog of repairs of royal buildings.

The Treasury was also criticised for not taking a more active role in reviewing the Palace's financial planning and management.

Committee chair Margaret Hodge, said: "There is scope for the household to generate more income and reduce its costs further".

She praised it for increasing its income during the last financial year, but added: "However, we think it could do more. Since 2007-08, the household has cut its net costs by 16 per cent in real terms, but 11 per cent of that was achieved by increasing income, and just 5 per cent by reducing expenditure.

"With better commercial expertise in place, we think there is room to do more with less, reducing costs further and supporting the Queen's programme more effectively."

The document stated that the household's staffing levels had remained largely static at just over 430 people, during the past seven years, to allow it to maintain the Queen's programme.

But this contrasted with the public sector which had seen employee numbers cut during the same period, and yet the sector was still expected to increase efficiency with fewer workers.

Ms Hodge also highlighted the large amount of work needed to maintain "nationally important heritage properties".

The PAC chairman said: "The household must get a much firmer grip on how it plans to address its maintenance backlog.

"It has not even costed the repair works needed to bring the estate back to an acceptable condition, and the Treasury did not require an estimate. Again, the Treasury has an oversight role here."

The PAC report stated that the household intends to allocate between 50 per cent and 60 per cent of the increase in Sovereign Grant funding in 2013-14, and in future years, to addressing the maintenance backlog, and was "belatedly" developing a 10-year maintenance plan.

Ms Hodge added: "...we feel that the Queen has not been served well by the household and by the Treasury, which is responsible for effective scrutiny of the household's financial planning and management.

"We believe that the Treasury has a duty to be actively involved in reviewing the household's financial planning and management - and it has failed to do so."

Commenting on the ability of the Queen's staff to plan for the future, she said: "The household needs to get better at planning and managing its budgets for the longer term - and the Treasury should be more actively involved in reviewing what the household is doing."

A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said: "The move to the Sovereign Grant has created a more transparent and scrutinised system, which enables the royal household to allocate funding according to priorities. This has resulted in a more efficient use of public funds.

"A significant financial priority for the royal household is to reduce the backlog in essential maintenance across the occupied royal palaces. The need for property maintenance is continually assessed."

A Treasury spokesman said: "The new arrangements established by the Sovereign Grant Act have made the royal finances more transparent than ever while providing the long term stability necessary for good planning.

"The PAC's report has failed to properly account for these changes."

Asked if the Royal Family had too many palaces, Mrs Hodge told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "I don't think we even looked at that - we wouldn't have dared to look at that."